KARACHI: Police in collaboration with the district administration and other law enforcers have turned the centres of the Tableeghi Jamaat (TJ) into isolation centres, where a large number of its members were kept in isolation to prevent the spread of coronavirus, it emerged on Saturday.

“The Sindh Police have turned total 168 such centres into isolation/quarantine centres, where around 4,107 persons/preachers have been isolated to stop the spread of the virus,” a police spokesperson said.

Giving a breakdown of such centres and number of people there, the official said only one quarantine centre had been established in Karachi’s East zone of police with eight persons, 75 in Hyderabad with 1,013 preachers, 57 in Mirpurkhas with 646 people, 15 in Shaheed Benazirabad range with 1,061 persons, three in Sukkur with 901 members and 18 in Larkana with 478 members of the TJ.

The spokesman said that the police were providing decent meals to the people kept at these centres.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has provided Rs84 million to the police for provision of food and other facilities to the policemen deployed at corona emergency camps/points established across the province to implement lockdown measures, said the spokesman.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020